Alex Waterhouse-Hayward took this photograph of Don Van Vliet wearing a Harris Tweed jacket in Vancouver during the last days of the final Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band tour in January 1981.


Two more of Alex's photographs of Don can be seen at Alex's website. I particularly like the concert shot which shows Don in eyeball to eyeball contact with a member of the audience who had had too much to think.

Many thanks to Alex Waterhouse-Hayward for allowing us to reproduce his photograph here.




Hot Head at the High School Talent Show


A spirited rendition of Hot Head was recently performed at Daphne High School Talent Show by Safe in a Ditch, a trio of 15 and 16 year olds.

Despite evident appreciation from one sector of the audience, Safe in a Ditch failed to be placed by the Daphne judges. Nothing daunted, a video of their performance was then put up at YouTube where real connoisseurs can come to their own conclusions about whether these boys have talent.


I asked Bradley Bittinger, one of the two guitarists with Safe in a Ditch, to tell me about their choice of material.


We chose Hot Head mainly because we all liked it, and it seems to "rock" a bit more than the other Beefheart songs we thought we were capable of playing. Another factor that influenced the song choice was the 3 minute time limit for our performance. We all figured out our parts to the song by ear.


Bradley and James Wamble (who sings and also plays guitar on Hot Head) get together regularly to play music. Among other recordings at their MySpace page are a spontaneous jam to China Pig, and a version of Poofter's Froth, Wyoming, Plans Ahead.

Time's runnin' out

This still is from Bernd Hansen's stylish video for Captain Beefheart's Click Clack. Catch this now before Mrs Grundy finds out about it. There is more from Bernd at his website.

Another Captain Beefheart tribute with a short life-span is The Black Keys cover of I'm Glad. This is downloadable only until Friday 9th May at The Black Keys MySpace page or at Stereogum. A video of The Black Keys live broadcast for KCRW includes another outing for their cover of Here I Am I Always Am at about 22'30".

The Curable Interns (Special Beefheart Edition) announce another short shelf-life for their collection of covers and tributes at MySpace. On April 22nd they said that this material would only be available "for a week or two".

I've no idea how long video of five Mallard numbers from a 1976 German TV show will be available at Zapateers but from that broadcast One Day Once is now at YouTube.

Posted by derek@beefheart.com at 9:27 PM  - 1 comments - post a comment

Beefheart Night at New York's Knitting Factory on April 9th has prompted many eye-witness accounts, photographs, and audio and video files from the event. Here are links to some of them.

David Lynch reads Pena

Robyn Hitchcock & Gary Lucas perform Sure 'Nuff 'N' Yes I Do

Glenn Kenny's account

Photographs from Prefix Mag / Lori Baily

Gary Lucas's blog Monday April 14, 2008

'An Inspired Evening of Beefheartiana' by Steve Holtje

As soon as Culture Catch's film of the event is released, we'll link to it here.

Peter Warner wrote this review of the evening:

For the Love of Don…

And what a glorious night it was. After all the sub dude talking, which was all very charming and a bit of a revelation to hear the words spoken in a NYCity accent, Lucas cranked up the volume for the big payoff. The pulsing, shimmering KANDY KORN was certainly a highlight, sending shock waves through the audience. Building to its magisterial climax, I could not but help step closer to the stage as toupees flew by, pushing up into the corners of the room. Truly powerful sensory overload and deeply moving, this had to be one of the finest moments of live music I have ever experienced. At one point, Philip Johnston made a knob turning gesture, pleading with Gary to lower the volume, begging for tolerance, but a smirk declared the mission and there was no turning back. The crowd was a good mix of young and old (I guess we would call that middle-age these days), and a surprising number of fine ladies were in attendance, which is always a good sign. Of the new numbers, THE PAST SURE IS TENSE proved a natural (can’t you hear the horns on your head?) and the sheer oddity of BLABBER & SMOKE almost made it difficult to hear the music in this often overlooked, seemingly throwaway tune. It is safe to say it is an improvement on the original (sacrilege, I know). WOE-IS-UH-ME-BOP introduced a decidedly non-Beef clarinet (the most human of instruments). This was one curious arrangement and I desperately need to hear it again. YOU KNOW YOU’RE A MAN was a cool selection, having all the gusto, swagger, and playful testosterone-fueled flirtation of the original. Much appreciation goes to Mr. Holtje for his CultureCatch column, but I gotta pipe up and say I loved bassist Jesse Krakow’s A CARROT IS AS CLOSE AS A RABBIT GETS TO A DIAMOND. Oh, and EVENING BELL, anyone? At frickin’ Pete Townsend volume? Hooray! It was clear that Gary meant to rip the roof off the place, and all night long he let loose like the Old Mentor was off in the wings cracking the whip. Heavenly.

Hmmm, and as if this all was not enough, the hardcore got a special treat in the way of the Robyn Hitchcock/Gary Lucas Duo. Mr. Hitchcock has an obvious love for the material, and if he altered the words to SURE ‘NUFF, it probably had more to do with teenage memories than anything else. I even caught him singing CLICK CLACK for his own amusement long after he left the stage. What else? Oh yeah, the paintings! A real nice touch, these projections, many of which I have not seen and wish I owned. Don’t know why, but I like Don’s visual work more and more the older I get. I think it has something to do with being less frightened of silence and more at peace with Death. God Bless you, Don Van Vliet.

......and thank you Peter Warner. If anyone else has any further comments or contributions please add them to the comments box or send me a mail. Thanks. This post was updated on 21st April 2008.

Posted by derek@beefheart.com at 6:18 PM  - 2 comments - post a comment

Beefheart Night at The Knit, the April 9th tribute to Captain Beefheart in New York, promises to have even more treats and surprises than we listed at Up Sifter here on February 23rd.

There are so many more treats and surprises in fact, that Fast 'N' Bulbous: The Captain Beefheart Project's performance of Don Van Vliet compositions has been put back from 10.00 to 11.00 to fit them all in. Fast 'N' Bulbous, incidentally, will be previewing some arrangements from a planned second CD, as well as playing material from their first CD.

Among the additional speakers to have been added to the already burgeoning line-up are:

Giorgio Gomelsky (Yardbirds producer and the Stones first manager) will reminisce (he knew both Don and Zappa).

Fred Perry, who was pictured on the "Safe as Milk" inner sleeve coming out of the baby's right ear dressed in shades and a pilot's helmet, will appear. His brother Richard was the producer of the album. It was Fred who first introduced the schoolboy Gary Lucas to the name of Captain Beefheart.

Roswell Rudd will now play a solo trombone tribute in lieu of reading a poem or reminiscence, which will be a special treat for jazz fans.

David Lynch, the film director, has sent a tape of himself reading Pena, in the Trout Mask Replica style. Gary Lucas tells me that this sounds "really cool".

An addition to the playlist of unreleased Captain Beefheart recordings may be a preview of part of a set of recently discovered master tapes which has been licensed for release as a double LP later this year. This material consists of previously unheard out-takes from the Mirror Man sessions. It was for this album that I requested photographs at Up Sifter back in January. As soon as we receive more definite information about this release we'll be posting it here. Meanwhile, Beefheart Night at The Knit offers the best chance to hear some of this album now, as I understand that the record company has sent along an advance copy.

Lastly, it is hoped that a very special guest will be joining the proceedings at some late hour, after Fast 'N' Bulbous's performance.

The evening will be recorded by Dusty Wright from Culture Catch, who will film and cover the event and post a podcast about it on his website a few days after the event.

Beefheart Night at The Knit, Wednesday 9th April at The Knitting Factory Main Space, 74 Leonard Street, New York City.

Posted by derek@beefheart.com at 9:15 PM  - 8 comments - post a comment

Recent music links

Here I Am I Always Am played by The Black Keys at SXSW 2008 in Houston on March 12th.

Andy Haas (former Martha and the Muffins saxophonist, now better known through his work and associations with the NY downtown music scene) offers an unusual and reflective version of Abba Zabba (two minute sample here) on Radio I-Ching's new CD, The Fire Keeps Burning, available from CD Baby.

Another Abba Zabba involving several other NY downtown musicians performing as Fast 'n Bulbous was recorded at WFMU in 2004. Here it is at YouTube.

Benjamin Horrendous has just put up 4 Beefheart covers, and another 5 tracks from his album 'Fourfathers Live' (2000), as streaming mp3s at his website.

Orange Claw Hammer performed by Eugene Chadborne and Stefan Neville was featured during a Pumice session on Dennis Tyfus' radio show, Radio Centraal. Orange Claw Hammer begins 30 minutes into the programme.

Phil Reavis recorded a long version of Trust Us sometime in the mid-eighties. It has recently surfaced as 7 separate mp3s at The Internet Archive and is also available at WMRecordings.


Liverpool and Captain Beefheart

It was good to read in The Daily Telegraph that The Bluecoat in Liverpool, the venue for Don Van Vliet's first art exhibition in 1972, goes from strength to strength.

Beatles Story press officer Jamie Bowman wrote at The Word that in Liverpool, " record collecting seems to take huge significance from an early age. I can't think of many other cities where you see Captain Beefheart grafitti on bus shelters."

Anyone with memories of Don Van Vliet's Bluecoat show, or photographs of vandalised Scouse bus shelters, please contact me.


What Was Lost

Catherine O'Flynn's first novel, 'What Was Lost', has been picking up all manner of nominations, prizes and sales. One of the characters seems to have a mission to educate people in music, so for the record here are two links to an extract involving 'Lick My Decals Off, Baby' - Costa Book Awards (page 55), British Book Awards (page 11).

Posted by derek@beefheart.com at 9:12 PM  - 0 comments - post a comment

Posted by derek@beefheart.com at 9:50 PM  - 2 comments - post a comment

The Times divided music fans into two camps in today's paper: critics who love music which nobody else likes (trouts, named after you know what) and those who love music which the critics don't like (bats, named after a multi-million selling album by Meatloaf).

Read the full article, Music critics love albums that the public hates, on the Times website, should you so desire.

Posted by Graham Johnston at 4:54 PM  - 4 comments - post a comment

This item has been updated with a new post, Even more treats at The Knit, 2 April 2008.

Update - 9 March 2008

Wednesday 9th April at The Knitting Factory Main Space, 74 Leonard Street, New York City.

Gary Lucas curates Beefheart Night at the Knit, a salute to the Music, Poetry and Art of Don Van Vliet, a/k/a Captain Beefheart.

Proceedings beginning at 8:00pm with a screening of rare Beefheart videos and documentaries and the spinning of unreleased tracks.

This is followed by a reading of Don Van Vliet's poetry, and reminiscences by special guests including:

• Lee Ranaldo
• Alan Vega
• Roswell Rudd
• Kurt Loder
• Danny Fields
• Mike Edison
• Hal Willner
• Jamie Cohen
• Billy Altman
• and more tba

"This man is a very sophisticated lyricist!" - Jerzy Kosinksi, Yale University 1973.

At 10pm, the return of Fast 'N' Bulbous, the Captain Beefheart Project, featuring Gary Lucas, arranged and conducted by Phillip Johnston, with Jesse Krakow (bass), Joe Fiedler (trombone), Rob Henke (trumpet), Dave Sewelson (baritone sax), and Richard Dworkin (drums).

Posted by Graham Johnston at 9:55 PM  - 1 comments - post a comment

During the filming of The Magic Band DVD Mark Boston (Rockette Morton) remarked that the music of Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band was, "like bluegrass only weirder".

Mark Boston's potential epithet sprang into my head last night when I read an article by Danny Barnes, the former Bad Livers frontman, and guitarist and banjo-player of blue-grass, alt-rock-country, jazz-frisell, and various other gen-res.

In his essay, Danny describes his take on what Don Van Vliet achieved in his recording of Trout Mask Replica. Danny is particularly interested in Captain Beefheart's synthesis of different musical and sonic elements and he points out some potentially exciting musical departures for American country musics, based on Trout Mask Replica's methodology.

Danny was kind enough to respond immediately and enthusiastically to my suggestion that he let us reproduce his essay at this blog. Here it is:


a re-appreciation of captain beefheart's trout mask replica and the potential applications of Its experimental ideas in american country musics

By Danny Barnes

for some years this record has been in my mind. I became aware of it in the middle seventies, although it was released some years prior, in 1969. a very interesting albeit strange friend of my oldest brother adored this record and couldn’t speak of it without laughing. it became one of my all time favorite musical works and my vote for one of the greatest recordings ever. there is something so far out in the music on this thing.

In the last few years, my thinking in regard to currently produced american country musics has come to rest on the idea that there could be more interest created by changing the order and composition of certain archetypical structures, and by utilizing different approaches in the recording methodology, as demonstrated to great effect by the experiments on trout mask replica. (see the term granular synthesis in wikipedia as an example of another technique that has yet to become a part of the set of recording ideas for these musics. american country music forms could be approached with ideas such as granular synthesis to a stunning result).

having grown up with american country, folk and similar forms of music, i didn’t really notice the constant repetition of certain musical motifs, even more so in contemporary statements of these forms. some might argue that, like haiku, the beauty is in the constant rearranging of these basic units of sound, or limiting factors. i don’t use the word limit as a negative phrase, only to describe the process. for example if we say, let’s arrange a piece of music for resonator guitar and washboard and voice, we are limiting or dithering things down so they can be dealt with. compositionally and arrangement-wise this must be done, as the entire cosmos is hard to write music for. (john hartford once told me that style was based on limitation). so i guess i’m using this phrase in a quantitative way rather than a qualitative way.

there are certain thematic objects that are the basis of the language of traditional american country musics. for example (this is obviously tremendously simplified) in a bar of 2/4, in bluegrass music for example, the bass has a specified figure, the fiddle, banjo and mandolin typically play modal scale patterns in sixteenth notes, the strum of the guitar and the path of the vocal melody are architecturally similar from one piece of music to the next.

much of the variation consists of regional dialect. as in the different accented rhythms that ralph stanley and earl scruggs and don reno would use to play the same melody. it’s almost like comparing differing accents of the speaking voice.

this is indeed a fascinating study, of course. differences in the way a person from georgia, virginia, louisiana, and missouri, and new york would say a certain phrase can be a very interesting thing to observe. the different ways they might play the same melody on a fiddle are likewise interesting, and to my way of thinking, can be related to speech patterns.

this is all well and good, and continues to hold our attention to a certain extent. however my feeling is that some new ideas would be healthy for everyone, because in the above example, the artists are, after all, saying the same thing. and i think that the type of experiments developed by the good captain can and should be brought to american country music forms. his is an unrestrained playfulness and open-mindedness in regard to structural components, in opposition to a stylistic dogmatism.

the experiments on trout mask replica have been banging around in the back of my mind for several decades. i recently went back to it and have been listening to it quite a bit. the way the music was apparently de-constructed and re-assembled, produces a most striking result. (i have no idea of his actual process, other than what i have read, but the music reminds me of working in a garage for some reason). some of the lo-fi technology, while i doubt the term existed then, has become the language of much of the interesting pop music of the more current timeframe ( not that these contemporary artists consciously copied captain beefheart, but i can still hear a certain thematic unity in the latin playboys first cd, samples of vinyl noise that run throughout certain hip hop tracks, wu tang, the fractured bass sample that busta rhymes if you really want to party with me is based on, dj spooky, the way turntablists reconstruct music architecturally, the list goes on for quite some time).

there are raw elements of traditional american blues and jazz in the music of trout mask replica, but a whole new type of language was created from the arrangement of the musical monads, or within the atomic structure, the micro view. the recording techniques themselves also become a part of the composition. example, in one of the spoken word pieces, the portable tape recorder used to gather sounds, produces some audible thumps as the switch is turned on and off, and becomes a component of the overall effect. captain beefheart didn’t try to hide the brush strokes, as it were.

i think that alternative country, or whatever that is called, americana, current folk, bluegrass music, and american country musics in general could well benefit from more experimentation of the rhythmic, melodic, and sonic concepts, along these lines. the procedures of how these musics are recorded could use some new thought. my take on it is that we are faced with a copy of a copy of a copy, and the original aristotelian archetype, if you will, has perhaps been lost. the societal relevance perhaps comes into question, the essential context. the typical newer versions of the music sound okay but what is being said? and why? what is the relation between the poetry and the actor, or the singer and the song?

there are so many things that can be done with the basic tonal ideas of american country musics. the potential is limitless. but if the same basic homogenized building blocks get used over and over again, the overall point can become unclear. then what is the purpose of this music? most especially when so many of the back catalogs are available in boxed sets with copious notes, and contain perhaps better renditions and more interesting recording techniques.

at one point, even the music that is now being copied was new and different. my understanding was that bill monroe was quite the innovator. so was muddy waters. and johnny cash. this could be a very long list. to which i would add captain beefheart.

on trout mask replica, the innovations come dripping out of the speakers. every song is de-constructed and re-assembled in the most intriguing way. captain beefheart’s music still sounds fresh and new to me. trout mask replica is such an interesting stew, it’s hard to place it on a time line. it could totally come out today, yet it has some pastiche of 78 rpm delta blues, and contemporary cut and paste art techniques, found art, outsider art, beatnik poetry, and hard to classify sonic weirdness and gleeful experimentation, contemporary composed music and avant-garde.

an aside========

a fellow living up here near me is buell neidlinger. i consider him to be one of the greatest musicians that i have ever witnessed. his resume has him playing with the greatest figures of western music. buell told me of sitting in with captain beefheart at their rehearsal studio, i believe, and declared the music to be the “greatest erector set ever constructed!” buell is a musician of the highest caliber and never spoke very highly of anyone’s music to me except for igor stravinsky, cecil taylor and cats like that (buell played and recorded with them both, as well as hundreds of other of the heaviest musicians).

once, while buell played on a recording of some music i had written (which is an activity quite like trying to go a few rounds with joe louis), the engineer said, referring to buell’s track, ” i think he made a mistake in that middle section.” upon listening to the playback, i realized buell had reconstructed the fundamental idea on the fly and turned the whole bass part around, it was awesome! (interesting to note that the engineer heard this as a mistake). these types of connections began to occupy my mind at that point. buell, to me, had re-invented the role of how an acoustic bass could be played in an american country type setting. we kept the track just like it was. it really lifted the whole piece up into the stratosphere. this is a one measure example of what can happen when a musician knows a form so well that he or she can innovate within and without the parameters. (this is what i am trying to do with my banjo playing in case you were wondering).

on trout mask replica this goes on in virtually every bar of music for the entire twenty six tracks. with parts stacked vertically on other parts. it’s like finding the ruins of an ancient civilization and realizing that it is perhaps more advanced than yours.

on this, captain beefheart’s masterpiece, there is hardly a section of music that you can really tell what is going to happen next. yet it sounds strangely familiar. it’s kind of like listening to all music at once. the effect is interesting and invigorating. it’s kind of beautiful and ugly at the same time. man, i love this record.



Thanks to Danny Barnes and FolkTronics for permission to reproduce this article, which was first published at FolkTronics on February 10th, 2008.

Posted by derek@beefheart.com at 9:08 PM  - 3 comments - post a comment

Gary Lucas plays Don Van Vliet

Gary Lucas was in Hilversum for a few days recently, recording his own specially commissioned composition for National Dutch Radio. This piece will be broadcast as accompaniment to a radio interview which Co de Kloet conducted with Don Van Vliet in 1993.

In Gary's weblog entry for February 2nd we learn that, "....the work went amazingly quickly, I played my heart out and utilized both my electronic fx, 1966 strat, and 1928 National steel guitar for my score (I had worked out the major themes in NYC beforehand but left lots of space for spontaneous improvisation), in tandem with occasional judicious and welcome input from producer/director Co...."

Fans of Gary Lucas's brand of spontaneous bop prosody will be the first to learn when the recording will be broadcast. This Village native hipster promises to list the date at his website.

Meanwhile, some unaccompanied excerpts from that 1993 interview can be heard at the National Dutch Radio website.

Covers corner

Video of The Kills performing Dropout Boogie turned up on YouTube the other day.

An article about local band Shortstack in Washington City Paper included an mp3 of their version of Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles.

The Guardian hosted a piece about the unclassifiable Lewis Taylor, A tip of the hat to the soulman who was more Captain Beefheart than Jay Kay, while at Soul Strut there was discussion about Lewis Taylor's version of Trout Mask Replica which had been made available for download.

You're a me and you're a me and you're a me........

An interview which Ian Anderson had given to an un-named Jethro Tull fanzine in 1990 was posted at Zappa.com's discussion group. In the interview Ian held forth at length on his experiences and impressions of Don Van Vliet and The Magic Band. Not all of what Ian is reported to have said about Don was entirely complimentary but, as one contributor to the discussion pointed out, Ian Anderson had himself been criticised by Lester Bangs for precisely the same reasons. Read the discussion and the interview at Zappa.com

Posted by derek@beefheart.com at 10:55 PM  - 2 comments - post a comment

Don Van Vliet's first Italian exhibition opened last night in Palermo, Sicily.

The show, 'Zig Zag Wandering', is being held at Galleria dell'Arco until 15 February 2008.

Four reproductions of pictures from the exhibition are shown at Galleria dell'Arco's website.

Galleria dell'Arco Via Siracusa 9 Palermo Tel / fax +39091 6261234 www.dearco.it info@dearco.it


Thanks to Roberto for mailing me with news of this show.

Posted by derek@beefheart.com at 7:23 PM  - 2 comments - post a comment